Peter King: Obama Extremism Summit 'a Touchy-Feely Event'

Rep. Peter King was less than impressed with President Barack Obama's Summit on Countering Violent Extremism — and the New York Republican said the exclusion of FBI Director James Comey from the event was wrong.

"As far as I'm concerned, it was a touchy-feely, hand-holding type of event where we're talking about finding jobs … about encouraging people not to get into violence where they behead people and burn them to death," King said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

The New York Times reported that Comey wasn't invited because the White House did not want the focus of the conference to be on federal law enforcement. Despite that explanation, Comey's Russian counterpart, Aleksandr Bortnikov, was invited.

King, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee and chair of the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence doesn't buy it.

"The fact is that we can have all of the talk we want about trying to make the world better, [but] our immediate obligation is to keep Americans safe," he said.

"And you do that by tough, strict law enforcement gathering intelligence, the FBI, local police working together, the CIA, all of our intelligence agencies. The FBI director, more than anyone, should have been there."

He also said there were great efforts during the summit not to give terrorism an Islamic label.

King also addressed the media coverage of Islamic terrorist group Al Shabaab calling for an attack on Mall of America and other shopping centers.

"It's important for the American people to know that we have these constant threats, but it's sort of a balance. I don't think we should give Al Shabaab that much coverage," King he told Steve Malzberg.

"It should be put in as a straight news story and it's important the FBI and the local police and all our intelligence agencies are working to stop it. The fact is we are constantly on alert about different types of threats.

"Al-Qaida is there, it's going to remain there for quite a while, and these off shoots like Al Shabaab being one of them. So we have to take it seriously, but I would say that I would not be giving Al Shabaab this type of coverage. This is a great recruiting tool for them now."

Rep. Peter King was less than impressed with President Barack Obama's Summit on Countering Violent Extremism — and the New York Republican said the exclusion of FBI Director James Comey from the event was wrong.